Exmouth Exodus 2016

Nick is riding the Exmouth Exodus for the first time this year, as well as riding from home to Bath to start the ride.

You can track his progress here, if you're a committed dot watcher as am I.

DunRun 2016 is today

The new tracking page is giving me grey hairs ... OK ... more grey hairs.

As far as we can see, we've set it up correctly, and the location dots are appearing on my phone, within the Spot app, but for some reason they just don't seem to be transferring to the public SpotWalla page :( This could be because the secure zone around our house has 'grown' and it will all be OK once Nick sets off to the DunRun start, or it could be something else that will make it impossible to see him during the ride. We just don't have the time for him to do a ride many km's from home to test it out.

The van is ready to go, the bike is ready to go, the camera still needs to be checked and batteries recharged, and, I've bought an WiFi SD card recently that I need to put in and check/figure out how to use, and I also need to figure out what lenses I'm going to take. I'm hoping for some lovely bikes/people on the beach shots with a gorgeous sunrise in the background. May not happen because there is going to be a lot of cloud cover, which will rather detract from the almost full moon-ness of the night.

We've also been trying to find an SMS notification that may wake me up, so that if the Spot Tracker sends me an SOS message, I'll hear it. Its been a laugh, and have eventually settled on a bugle call ... the fire engine was a close second!

Dunwich Dynamo Preparations

Nick spent last night making sure his bike, lights etc were all ready for the Dunwich Dynamo this weekend, while I went out to dinner with a friend.  We did invite him, but his dedication to the bike is such that dinner with two lovely ladies wasn't nearly as interesting!  A little diversion from DunRun though ... if you live in North East Surrey, Ray's Kitchen, in Walton-on-the-Hill, serves the most delicious curry, and the staff there are lovely.  Give them a try.  They've only been open about 6 weeks, and I hope they are there for a long, long time.

If you don't know what DunRun is all about, it's a night ride from London Fields in Hackney, to the beach in Dunwich, on the Suffolk coast.
People mill about at London Fields for a bit, and then, between 8pm and 10pm set off for the coast.  The route is available to purchase at the start, for the princely sum of £1, with the proceeds going to a cycling charity.  There is no entrance fee or anything like that .. it's semi organised.  You really, just turn up and ride.  Although it is possible to just follow other riders, I urge you all to splash out a pound for the route sheet ... its for a good cause, and you will get far more than a pound's worth of enjoyment from the ride.

Location tracking takes a leap forward

We have invested in a Spot Gen3 tracker, and boy oh boy, it's lovely.  The annual subscription is a little on the steep side, but, seeing as it includes private Search & Rescue if he's in trouble, that's OK.  We will be testing it out on DunRun later this month.

It is not in anyway dependent on cell phone towers or signal, and runs directly off the satellites to send position and a selection of messages to a phone via SMS.   We have experimented with all the buttons (except the SOS button), and it works beautifully.

Preparation for the WOW Cylothon 2017

The biggest problem we've faced for Nick cycling the Wow Cyclothon is rounding up enough people for the support team, and this week, I think we have finally got it sorted out perfectly, adding a lovely young man to the team, who in addition to being able to drive and get on with people, has some bike mechanic skills.

We also have a nurse of the support team, who hopefully won't be required to do anything other than drive!

LeJog ... the journey back to John O'Groats

Day 1

Riding went very well indeed, and Nick rode from Lands End to Tewkesbury.  We stayed at the Caravan Club site adjacent to the abbey.  The wardens were lovely, and gave me a pitch close to the gates, because I would have to accompany Nick to the gates the next morning with a key to let him out.

At around 9pm I realised that when I'd done my shopping for the day, I'd forgotten to buy double cream, which is the most calorie intensive part of Nick's breakfast on cycling days, so the wardens gave me directions to the One Stop, the only shop open late at night.  I got there at 9.05pm to

JogLe (John O'Groats to Lands End)

Day 1

Loch Ness - with not a monster in sight

For me, there was a little excitement on the road watching one of the swinging bridges between lochs swinging open to let some water traffic through.  Sadly I had to scuttle back to the van to get ready to move off too soon!